Chapter 125: Chapter Thirty-One

Alex

I jolted awake in a sweaty mess, with pain so severe I shouted out a few curses before blinking open my eyes to a room filled with ice and snow.

“Really, Cassius?”

He shrugged. “You were dreaming of the past. When I touched you, I saw Bannik. I thought it wise to follow him.”

“Can you leave me out of it next time?”

“No.” His eyes flashed. “Since apparently you’re part of the reason we are in this whole mess, my friend.”

I leaned back against the sweat-soaked pillow. “Where’s Hope?”

“Safe,” Cassius answered thoughtfully. “For now.”

“So downstairs?”

Cassius slowly took down his whole DEFCON 1 look, appearing more human by the minute as the ice melted around us. “You need sex.”

“If you get Mason, I can touch him, and have sex with her, it will work.”

“Did you know?” Why the hell was Cassius ignoring every damn question that came out of my mouth?

“Know what?”

“About Bannik?”

“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and gritted my teeth as fresh pain swelled all over me.

“I’ve always thought you were too powerful. Now I know I’ve been right all along. If Bannik wanted you then, he most likely wants you now, which means we either kick his ass before he finds out a way to destroy Sariel’s brothers… or you reach your full potential as he calls it, and do it for us.”

“Lover not a fighter,” I grumbled. “Where are we on that whole Hope situation? I’d really like to not die in my own sweat.”

“You need sex, not her. The bond is strong, not strong enough. There is no love…”

“You can’t ask me to fall in love that fast, and you sure as hell can’t ask that of her… you haven’t given us any time to do anything except have sex and—”

“No,” Cassius interrupted. “That’s all on you. I was told you set a timer for sexual intercourse?”

Guilt stabbed me in the chest. “It was logical… at the time.”

“For you or her?”

“Cassius.”

“You won’t die… not if you have sex…”

“And you know that because?”

“Because Timber made it so.”

“That bastard was here?” I roared, ready to jump out of bed and ram my hand through his face.

An eerily calm expression washed over Cassius’s sharp features. “I let him take Hope.”

“WHAT!” My lungs burned from the scream. “Tell me this is your idea of a joke.”

“I rarely joke,” Cassius said with a deadpan expression. “She isn’t yours to protect, not anymore. Besides, what am I to do, when the very being she needs to be protected from—is her mate?”

“Come again?”

“You failed the elves before. You will not fail them again.”

“History won’t repeat itself,” I snarled, “Not if you let me help. But it sure as hell is going to be bad if Timber turns her over to Bannik!”

“Timber would die for her.”

“But—”

“Would you do the same?”

“Seriously?”

“Honestly.” Cassius did that slow blink thing that somehow made me feel like he was searching my thoughts.

“Yes,” I finally choked out and then gulped. “I would die for her.”

“You hesitated.”

“I just met her.”

Cassius smirked. “No. You didn’t.”

“Talking to you is giving me a headache.”

“Reach your full potential, Alex. In order to do that, you must fall in love, you get that, right? What Bannik was trying to do to you? To get you to be desperate enough to mate with the woman of his choosing — and kill her.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“The thing about sirens…” Cassius tilted his head. “Is that they do not understand how weak the heart truly is— and how desperate that same heart is, to be wanted by someone else. Love would not kill her— but your lack of love would eventually break her heart. And a severed heart means a dead elf. So yes, Timber saved her life, because she was falling in love with you, and you more with yourself.”

He disappeared from the room.

Leaving me in pain.

And alone with my thoughts.

Seconds later, a taunting voice in my head whispered, “It’s just sex.”

I lifted a shaky hand to my face and cursed. Because I knew the truth. With Hope, it had always been more.

I’d just been too blind.

And afraid.

To admit it.

And now she was gone.

My chest felt hollow.

I ached everywhere.

I burned.

And for the first time in my existence, I didn’t leave the house to find a willing human participant.

I closed my eyes and welcomed the pain—if that meant death, so be it.

I would not touch another but her.

Ever again.